TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Perhaps your school offers credits to senior students who work as teaching assistants. It's great to have extra help and the benefits of a student perspective in the library, but how do you grade these TAs? Here's a form which might help direct the evaluation process and determine your TA's talents.

Library TA organizing duplicate books. Note job lists on yellow post its in background.

Some projects former TAs have completed in our library:

Handling the distribution, ordering, and delivery of Scholastic Book Club order forms
Sorting weeded books to ship to Better World Books
Covering paperbacks with mac tac
Collecting information on banned books in Canada, creating a list of challenged books, designing a display on Banned Books
Creating a database to accompany 19 boxes of donated books for fire-ravaged South Okanagan Secondary
Creating a wiki to house Literature Circle information for our English Department
Helping "non-techie" teachers set up their classroom TVs with new DVD/VCR units
Figuring out how to use the new Elmo Document Camera and writing a set of instructions for staff use
Surveying six English classes about the features teens look for in biographies and completing an order list of suitable titles
Writing thank yous, letters of inquiry, and supporting letters for grant funding proposals on behalf of the library
Designing a Harry Potter display to accompany the last movie
Affixing maple leaf spine labels to WWI and WWII Canadian-focused books for easier identification by research classes
Planning a comic display complete with pictures of Big Bang theory's Sheldon Cooper spouting comic-related quotes
Entering Wish List selections onto the Google Docs book order spreadsheet
Researching pseudonyms for well-known authors to create a pamphlet
I Red a Book display for Valentine's Day - including shopping for prizes
Comparing various recommended lists to titles in our collection to identify potential books to order
Affixing quotes to the library walls
Designing graphic novel related bookmarks and finding related information of interest to teens to print on the reverse side
Taking photos of library events
Decorating for Autumn, Hallowe'en, Christmas and Easter
Determining the latest new series books to order
Organizing duplicate book cupboard, determining if circulating copies need replacing
Organizing school yearbooks - adding stamps, security tapes and tracking down missing volumes
Writing PA announcements newsletter bulletins (in teenspeak)
Creating signage (some quite humorous), labelling shelves, designing messages to place on front door

Coloured Tag pictures of Sheldon with quotes about comics caught the interest of teens.

You can subscribe to comics through Presse Commerce.